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Topic: Shipping Beer (Read 8001 times)

I know that the USPS will not ship beer. I am pretty sure FedEx and UPS only ship beer if you are a company that specifically signs a contract with them. As far as I know, the only way to ship home brew is to lie about what is being shipped.

Does anyone out there have a way to legally get your beer shipped without breaking the law? Maybe some other less known shipping company?

It is not illegal to ship beer to most states with FedEx or UPS, just against their policy. Call it "yeast samples" or "gifts" or something like that.

I don't know of any shipper that has a policy of knowingly taking beer from individuals.

Hey Tom, I shipped my beer UPS last year for the Cascade Brewer's Cup. Told the guy what was and everything. His only comment: Good luck.

Yeah, you occasionally find people at the counter who don't know or don't care about the UPS policy.

Quote from: http://www.ups.com/wine#Who+Can+Ship+Wine

Who Can Ship WineWho can ship wine via UPS services?

UPS only accepts packages containing wine from shippers who are licensed under applicable law and who have signed and entered into a contract with UPS for the transportation of wine.

Note: UPS provides service for other alcoholic beverages (beer and alcohol) on a contract basis only. For shipments containing beer or alcohol, shippers must enter into an approved UPS agreement for the transportation of beer or alcohol as applicable, must be licensed and authorized under applicable law to ship beer and alcohol, and may ship only to licensed consignees. UPS does not accept shipments of beer or alcohol for delivery to consumers. UPS accepts shipments of beer or alcohol only among and between selected states.

I prefer using FedEx for shipping beer. I have an account that allows me to be billed or pre-pay, print labels at the office or home. I ship beer all the time either to friends & family, contests or beer trading. No problems, so long as its packed well. Legality? Don't care.

Brings up a good point..have you (or anyone on this forum) ever heard of this actually happening to someone? I haven't and I've been doing it for years.

I shipped three cases of beer from a monastery I wont name in three different boxes back from Belgium this year and a fourth box full of beer from Paris. All via USPS, once it was stateside, and all arrived at my local post office. Only one box was damaged so bad that a few of the bottles broke. When I picked it up, they'd wrapped it in plastic and it smelled horrible. They kept asking what it was so I finally said something about cooking supplies, vinegar, etc. The spine was busted on another box and was so bad that you could actually reach in and pull out a bottle; surprisingly, they were all accounted for, though! Anyways, no issues at all. For the record, the Belgian post all but gave me their blessing, however, the French were freaking out because I didn't have a French return address..eventually, they let me ship it after a bunch of dirty looks. Not once did they question what was in it, they just wanted to make sure it said something on the forms; I used "Souvaniers/Personal Purchases." I will say that a worker at a different Paris post office than the one I used told me specifically that they would ship wine/beer to anywhere in the world...except the USA. They even have special boxes for it. The price to have shipped all that back internationally with UPS or Fedex was completely prohibitive; their prices were astronomical compared to standard post.

I've also shipped plenty of beers nationally to competitions and never had an issue. Really, who has?

It's much like the states that don't allow home brewing. those that want to, do. I've never heard of anyone getting busted for that nor shipping beer by the USPS. I'm sure there are some instances, but they may also be myths.